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Nuclear fusion is a potential source of energy that could supply the growing needs of the world population for millions of years. Several experimental thermonuclear fusion devices try to understand and control the nuclear fusion process. A very interesting diagnostic called Thomson scattering (TS) is performed in the Spanish fusion device TJ-II. This diagnostic takes images to measure the temperature and density profiles of the plasma, which is heated to very high temperatures to produce fusion plasma. Each image captures spectra of laser light scattered by the plasma under different conditions. Unfortunately, some images are corrupted by noise called stray light that affects the measurement of the profiles. In this work, we propose the use of deep learning models to reduce the stray light that appears in the diagnostic. The proposed approach utilizes a Pix2Pix neural network, which is an image-to-image translation based on a generative adversarial network (GAN). This network learns to translateimages affected by stray light to images without stray light. This allows for the effective removal of the noise that affects the measurements of the TS diagnostic, avoiding the need for manual image processing adjustments. The proposed method shows a better performance, reducing the noise up to 98% inimages, which surpassesprevious works that obtained 85% for the validation dataset.

Current needs in finding new antibiotics against emerging multidrug-resistant superbugs are pushing the scientific community into coming back to Nature for the discovery of novel active structures. Recently, a survey of halophilic actinomyectes from saline substrates of El Saladar del Margen , in the Cúllar-Baza depression (Granada, Spain), led us to the isolation and identification of 108 strains from the rhizosphere of the endemic plant Limonium majus . Evaluation of the potential of these strains to produce new anti-infective agents against superbug pathogens was performed through fermentation in 10 different culture media using an OSMAC approach and assessment of the antibacterial and antifungal properties of their acetone extracts. The study allowed the isolation of two novel antibiotic compounds, kribbellichelin A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ), along with the known metabolites sandramycin ( 3 ), coproporphyrin III ( 4 ), and kribelloside C ( 5 ) from a bioassay-guided fractionation of scaled-up active extracts of the Kribbella sp. CA-293567 strain. The structures of the new molecules were elucidated by ESI-qTOF-MS/MS, 1D and 2D NMR, and Marfey's analysis for the determination of the absolute configuration of their amino acid residues. Compounds 1-3 and 5 were assayed against a panel of relevant antibiotic-resistant pathogenic strains and evaluated for cytotoxicity versus the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 (ATCC HB-8065). Kribbellichelins A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ) showed antimicrobial activity versus Candida albicans ATCC-64124, weak potency against Acinetobacter baumannii MB-5973 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa MB-5919, and an atypical dose-dependent concentration profile against Aspergillus fumigatus ATCC-46645. Sandramycin ( 3 ) confirmed previously reported excellent growth inhibition activity against MRSA MB-5393 but also presented clear antifungal activity against C. albicans ATCC-64124 and A. fumigatus ATCC-46645 associated with lower cytotoxicity observed in HepG2, whereas Kribelloside C ( 5 ) displayed high antifungal activity only against A. fumigatus ATCC-46645. Herein, we describe the processes followed for the isolation, structure elucidation, and potency evaluation of these two new active compounds against a panel of human pathogens as well as, for the first time, the characterization of the antifungal activities of sandramycin ( 3 ).

Effective psychological parenting interventions delivered to adoptive parents may prevent serious adjustment difficulties and promote a healthy functioning; however, less is known about adoptive parents' specific parental difficulties and help-seeking behaviors and perceptions, the understanding of which is deemed necessary to design well-informed interventions. This study aimed to describe parental difficulties, help-seeking behaviors, satisfaction with, and perceived barriers to seek, professional help, and acceptability of psychological parenting interventions among Portuguese adoptive parents. Comparisons with biological parents (Study 1) and between adoptive parents that requested adoption-specialized and non-specialized support (i.e., adoption-specialized vs. non-specialized help-seekers) (Study 2) were explored. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. Participants were 471 adoptive and 552 biological parents of children aged under 18 years who were recruited through schools, adoption agencies, and social networks. They completed measures assessing parental difficulties, help-seeking behaviors, satisfaction with, and perceived barriers to seek, professional help, and acceptability of psychological parenting interventions. Comparison tests between the study groups, Pearson's correlations, analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate logistic regressions (MLR) were performed. Parents' well-being and normative parenting challenges were the most frequent difficulties in both groups, but only associated with adoptive parents' help-seeking. Although difficulties related to a child's problems/parent-child relationship were more frequent among adoptive parents, adoption-related difficulties were rarely reported. Adoptive parents sought professional help more frequently, regardless of parental difficulties. Knowledge-related barriers to seeking help were the most frequent among adoptive parents. Adoption non-specialized help was less satisfactory. Acceptability of psychological parenting interventions was high, but dependent on parental difficulties. Implications for post-adoption services' development are discussed.

Nonequilibrium work relations and fluctuation theorems permit us to extract equilibrium information from nonequilibrium measurements. They find application in single-molecule pulling experiments where molecular free energies can be determined from irreversible work measurements by using unidirectional (e.g., Jarzynski's equality) and bidirectional (e.g., Crooks fluctuation theorem and Bennet's acceptance ratio (BAR)) methods. However, irreversibility and the finite number of pulls limit their applicability: the higher the dissipation, the larger the number of pulls necessary to estimate ΔG within a few kBT. Here, we revisit pulling experiments on an RNA three-way junction (3WJ) that exhibits significant dissipation and work-distribution long tails upon mechanical unfolding. While bidirectional methods are more predictive, unidirectional methods are strongly biased. We also consider a cyclic protocol that combines the forward and reverse work values to increase the statistics of the measurements. For a fixed total experimental time, faster pulling rates permit us to efficiently sample rare events and reduce the bias, compensating for the increased dissipation. This analysis provides a more stringent test of the fluctuation theorem in the large irreversibility regime.

The University Miguel Hernández of Elche was created in 1996 and its headquarters is located in the city of Elche. A new campus was developed where new buildings and infrastructures have been established for over 25 years in the north of the city. The university is growing, and the land cover/land use is changing, adapted to the new infrastructures. In fact, the landscape changed from a periurban agricultural area mixed with other activities into an urbanized area integrated into the city. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the progressive sealing of the soil and the consequences on the surface hydrology. The area is close to the Palmeral of Elche, a landscape of date palm groves with an ancient irrigation system, which is a World Heritage Cultural Landscape recognized by UNESCO. The evolution of the land occupation was analyzed based on the Aerial National Orthophotography Plan (PNOA). Soil sealing and the modifications of the hydrological ancient irrigation system were detected. Based on the results, proposals for improvement are made in order to implement green infrastructures and landscape recovery that can alleviate the possible negative effects of the soil sealing in the area occupied by the university.

A novel cyclic antimalarial and antitrypanosome hexapeptide, pipecolisporin ( 1 ), was isolated from cultures of Nigrospora oryzae CF-298113, a fungal endophyte isolated from roots of Triticum sp. collected in a traditional agricultural land of Montefrío, Granada, Spain. The structure of this compound, including its absolute configuration, was elucidated by HRMS, 1-D and 2-D NMR spectroscopy, and Marfey's analysis. This metabolite displayed interesting activity against Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma cruzi , with IC 50 values in the micromolar range, and no significant cytotoxicity against the human cancer cell lines A549, A2058, MCF7, MIA PaCa-2, and HepG2.

Acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) results from a decreased activity of hepatic hydroxymethylbilane synthase (HMBS), the third enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway. AIP is an autosomal dominant disorder with incomplete penetrance, characterized by acute neurovisceral attacks precipitated by several factors that induce the hepatic 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase, the first enzyme in the heme biosynthesis. Thus, a deficiency in HMBS activity results in an overproduction of porphyrin precursors and the clinical manifestation of the disease. Early diagnosis and counselling are essential to prevent attacks, and mutation analysis is the most accurate method to identify asymptomatic carriers in AIP families. In the present study, we have investigated the molecular defects in 55 unrelated Spanish patients with AIP, identifying 32 HMBS gene mutations, of which six were novel and ten were found in more than one patient. The novel mutations included a missense, an insertion, two deletions, and two splice site variants. Prokaryotic expression studies demonstrated the detrimental effect for the missense mutation, whereas reverse transcription-PCR and sequencing showed aberrant splicing caused by each splice site mutation. These results will allow for an accurate diagnosis of carriers of the disease in these families. Furthermore, they increase the knowledge about the molecular heterogeneity of AIP in Spain.

Conventional wastewater treatment generates large amounts of organic matter-rich sludge that requires adequate treatment to avoid public health and environmental problems. The mixture of wastewater sludge and some bulking agents produces a biosolid to be composted at adequate composting facilities. The composting process is chemically and microbiologically complex and requires an adequate aeration of the biosolid (e.g., with a turner machine) for proper maturation of the compost. Adequate (near) real-time monitoring of the compost maturity process is highly difficult and the operation of composting facilities is not as automatized as other industrial processes. Spectroscopic analysis of compost samples has been successfully employed for compost maturity assessment but the preparation of the solid compost samples is difficult and time-consuming. This manuscript presents a methodology based on a combination of a less time-consuming compost sample preparation and ultraviolet, visible and short-wave near-infrared spectroscopy. Spectroscopic measurements were performed with liquid compost extract instead of solid compost samples. Partial least square (PLS) models were developed to quantify chemical fractions commonly employed for compost maturity assessment. Effective regression models were obtained for total organic matter (residual predictive deviation-RPD = 2.68), humification ratio (RPD = 2.23), total exchangeable carbon (RPD = 2.07) and total organic carbon (RPD = 1.66) with a modular and cost-effective visible and near infrared (VNIR) spectroradiometer. This combination of a less time-consuming compost sample preparation with a versatile sensor system provides an easy-to-implement, efficient and cost-effective protocol for compost maturity assessment and near-real-time monitoring., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.